Tens of thousands of North Koreans gathered for a rally at Kim Il Sung Square carrying placards and propaganda slogans as a show of support for their rejection of the United Nations' latest round of sanctions on Wednesday Aug. 9, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

Tens of thousands of North Koreans gathered for a rally at Kim Il Sung Square carrying placards and propaganda slogans as a show of support for their rejection of the United Nations' latest round of sanctions on Wednesday Aug. 9, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

The front entrance sign for Anderson Air Force base is seen in Yigo, Guam on Thursday morning, Aug. 10, 2017. The small U.S. territory of Guam has become a focal point after North Korea's army threatened to use ballistic missiles to create an "enveloping fire" around the island. The exclamation came after President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen." (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Kids play in the sand in Tumon, Guam on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. The small U.S. territory of Guam has become a focal point after North Korea's army threatened to use ballistic missiles to create an "enveloping fire" around the island. The exclamation came after President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen." (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Tens of thousands of North Koreans gathered for a rally at Kim Il Sung Square carrying placards and propaganda slogans as a show of support for their rejection of the United Nations' latest round of sanctions on Wednesday Aug. 9, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert listens to a question during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. The State Department says President Donald Trump is "on the same page" with the rest of U.S. government with his fiery threat to North Korea. Nauert said the White House, State Department and Pentagon are all in agreement. She says the world, too, is speaking with once voice. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives at a military base in Subang, Malaysia, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017. President Donald Trump declared the U.S. nuclear arsenal "far stronger and more powerful than ever before," even as Tillerson was working to calm the North Korea crisis and insisting there wasn't "any imminent threat." (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

A man takes a photo of a TV news program in Tokyo, showing an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. In an exchange of threats, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen" and the North's military claimed Wednesday it was examining plans for attacking Guam. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

FILE - In this June 13, 2017 file photo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis listens on Capitol Hill in Washington. Mattis is issuing his own sharp threat to North Korea, saying the regime should cease any consideration of actions that would "lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Tourists walk the beach in Tumon, Guam on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. The small U.S. territory of Guam has become a focal point after North Korea's army threatened to use ballistic missiles to create an "enveloping fire" around the island. The exclamation came after President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen." (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

A copy of the local newspaper is for sale in Hagatna, Guam on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. The small U.S. territory of Guam has become a focal point after North Korea's army threatened to use ballistic missiles to create an "enveloping fire" around the island. The exclamation came after President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen." (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

A sovereign U.S. territory with a strategic airfield and naval station.

People walk through the Chamorro Village marketplace in Hagatna, Guam, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. The market is popular among U.S. military members, locals and tourists in the territory's capital city. Residents of the tiny Pacific island say they're afraid of being caught in the middle of escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea after Pyongyang announced it was examining plans for attacking the strategically important U.S. territory. (AP Photo/Grace Garces Bordallo)

People walk through the Chamorro Village marketplace in Hagatna, Guam, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. The market is popular among U.S. military members, locals and tourists in the territory's capital city. Residents of the tiny Pacific island say they're afraid of being caught in the middle of escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea after Pyongyang announced it was examining plans for attacking the strategically important U.S. territory. (AP Photo/Grace Garces Bordallo)

People walk by a TV screen showing a local news program reporting with an image of U.S. President Donald Trump at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. North Korea and the United States traded escalating threats, with President Donald Trump threatening Pyongyang "with fire and fury like the world has never seen" and the North's military claiming Wednesday it was examining its plans for attacking Guam. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

While U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged calm despite the exchange of threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea, foreign policy analysts described the heated rhetoric as potentially "very dangerous." (Aug. 9)

Residents in Guam are expressing concern and anxiety over North Korea's latest threat to the island. Others say they're confident in the U.S. military's ability to defend the territory. (Aug. 9)

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson called the situation with North Korea "very grave," but added it is not yet a crisis. He said President Trump needs to "calm down" the rhetoric and consider serious diplomatic efforts. (Aug. 9)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged calm and said Americans should have "no concerns" after North Korea and President Donald Trump traded fiery threats, insisting Wednesday he doesn't believe there is "any imminent threat." (Aug. 9)

While U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged calm despite the exchange of threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea, foreign policy analysts described the heated rhetoric as potentially "very dangerous." (Aug. 9)

North Korea outlines plan to launch missiles toward Guam

North Korea outlines plan to launch missiles toward Guam

By ERIC TALMADGE

Aug. 10, 2017

https://www.apnews.com/931769550f3b433ca64f6c5e633da23b

Link copied!

Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday announced a detailed plan to launch a volley of ballistic missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, a major military hub and home to U.S. bombers, and dismissed President Donald Trump's threats of "fire and fury" if it doesn't back down.

The announcement, made in the name of a general who heads North Korea's rocket command, warned the North is preparing a plan to fire four of its Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan and into waters around the tiny island, which hosts 7,000 U.S. military personnel on two main bases and has a population of 160,000.

While U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged calm despite the exchange of threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea, foreign policy analysts described the heated rhetoric as potentially "very dangerous." (Aug. 9)

It said the plan could be finalized within a week or so and would then go to leader Kim Jong Un for approval. It would be up to Kim whether the move is actually carried out. It said the missiles would hit waters 30 to 40 kilometers (19 to 25 miles) away from the island.

It is unclear whether North Korea would risk firing missiles so close to U.S. territory, which could provoke countermeasures and further escalation.

North Korea frequently uses extremely bellicose rhetoric with warnings of military action to keep its adversaries on their heels. It generally couches its threats with language stating it will not attack the United States unless it has been attacked first or has determined an attack is imminent.

But the statement raised worries amid a barrage of threats from both sides.

Following reports that U.S. intelligence suggests the North might be able to pair a nuclear warhead with a missile capable of reaching targets on the United States mainland, Trump warned North Korea that "it faces retaliation with fire and fury unlike any the world has seen before."

Pyongyang, meanwhile, has been louder in its complaints against a new and tough round of sanctions imposed on it by the United Nations, with strong U.S. backing, and Washington's use of Guam as a staging ground for its stealth bombers, which could be used to attack North Korea and are a particularly sore point with the rulers in Pyongyang.

Even so, its reported plan to launch missiles toward Guam is extremely unusual.

The report said the Hwasong-12 rockets would fly over Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi prefectures in Japan and travel "1,065 seconds before hitting the waters 30 to 40 kilometers away from Guam."

It said the Korean People's Army Strategic Force will finalize the plan by mid-August, present it to Kim Jong Un and "wait for his order."

"We keep closely watching the speech and behavior of the U.S.," it said.

Such a move would not merely be a test launch, but a demonstration of military capabilities in a manner than could easily lead to severe consequences.

If North Korea were to actually carry out such a launch — even if it aimed at hitting the waters off the island and not the island itself — that would clearly pose a potential threat to U.S. territory and put the United States in a much more complicated situation than it has been during previous missile launches.

Guam lies about 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) from the Korean Peninsula, and it's extremely unlikely Kim's government would risk annihilation with a pre-emptive attack on U.S. citizens. It's also unclear how reliable North Korea's missiles would be against such a distant target, but no one was writing off the danger completely.

Washington has been testing its missile defenses in response to the North's stepped-up development and the current escalation of tensions could lead to pressure for the U.S. military to try to shoot down the North's missiles in midflight if they are heading toward Guam.

That would likely open up a set of very major problems, including the possibility of both a very high-profile failure or a miscalculation of Washington's intentions and a more deadly pre-emptive strike by the North — which has missiles able to hit Tokyo and conventional weapons that could devastate South Korea's capital of Seoul.

The Hweasong-12, which was revealed for the first time at a military parade in April, is an intermediate-range ballistic missile that is believed to have a range of more than 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles). It can be fired from mobile launchers, making it hard to detect and destroy on the ground.

By launching a volley of four, the North would be attempting to make it harder for the U.S. to intercept all of the incoming missiles.

Washington, meanwhile, has been giving out mixed signals of what its intensions might be.

While Trump was threatening annihilation and boasting from the New Jersey golf resort where he's vacationing that he has made the U.S. nuclear arsenal "far stronger and more powerful than ever before," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to calm the sense of crisis.

Speaking earlier Wednesday on his way home from Asia, he insisted the U.S. isn't signaling a move toward military action.

"Americans should sleep well at night," Tillerson told reporters. "Nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours."

But then Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ratcheted the rhetoric back up, calling on Pyongyang to "cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people." As seldom as it is for a president to speak of using nuclear missiles, the reference to the "destruction" of a foreign people is equally rare.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans gathered for a rally at Kim Il Sung Square carrying placards and propaganda slogans as a show of support for their rejection of the United Nations' latest round of sanctions on Wednesday Aug. 9, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

North Korea immediately called Trump's rhetoric a "load of nonsense" that was aggravating a grave situation.